Skin Copper Levels in Psoriasis

In a previous communication we reviewed the evidence that copper plays an essential role in the normal keratinization process of animal skin, and reported the finding of significantly elevated serum copper levels in a group of psoriatics (1). Elevation of serum copper levels may also occur in a wide variety of endocrine, neoplastic, infectious, nutritional, metabolic, and inflammatory disturbances. The question, therefore, arose as to whether the serum copper findings in psoriasis merely represent a non-specific response to an inflammatory process, or whether they might be associated with quantitative or qualitative abnormalities in tissue copper. In an initial attempt to clarify this problem, a quantitative study of tissue copper in psoriatic skin was undertaken.